KickOff Conference “Citizens Media for Intercultural and Political Dialogue” in Istanbul
The international kick-off meeting and the stakeholder conference took place on November 15th 2014 at the “Urban Station” in Istanbul, Turkey. About 100 delegates of stakeholders, civil society representatives, NGO leaders, academics, students and media/press representatives came together to discuss about the civil society dialogue and cooperations between the EU and Turkey. At the beginning Dr. Joachim Musholt (manager Bürgerhaus Bennohaus, DE), Murat Akbıyık (president of YOUTHART, TR) and Benedikt Althoff (Y4M Network, DE) outlined the new project “Citizens Media for Intercultural and Political Dialogue”, funded by the Republic of Turkey and the EU (Civil Society Dialogue Between EU And Turkey –III Political Criteria Grant Scheme).
European Movement Germany’s Secretary General Bernd Hüttemann, board member of EM International, marked the importance of the “Civil Society Dialogue” between the European Union and Turkey. Civil society organisations from the EU and Turkey are engaged to increase exchange of experience and knowledge transfer as well as to foster sustainable networking. Bernd Hüttemann especially underlined the aspect that considerations of minority interests and issues are an essential requirement for democratic societies in Europe.
Afterward Dr. Itır Akdoğan, Habitat Center for Dev. and Governance Informatics, exposed the wide range of civil society organisations and the active engagement of youth in NGOs and exemplified the National Youth Parliament in Turkey.
Prof. Dr. Eylem Yanardağoğlu, Deputy Dean of Kadir Has University Faculty of Communication, informed about the journalistic university education and the media landscape in Turkey. She remarked that digital media competences and journalistic skills are key qualifications to foster active participation and intercultural communication of young citizens. Journalistic media education will increase the chances of young people on the labour market.
Rui Monteiro (DK), delegate of Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), contributed to the discussion that citizen media organisations offer infrastructure and a helping community to citizens. Community and citizen media can play a key role in fostering tolerance and pluralism in a democratic society. They may enable disadvantaged members of a community to become active in society and to engage in debates concerning issues that are important for them.
The intensive discussions with the audience have been broadcasted by the Community TV and were streamed live to the internet. The conference fade away with a joint Turkish dinner.
The project “Citizens Media for Intercultural and Political Dialogue” is proceeding with local community workshops and media training courses for trainers in İstanbul and Münster (DE). On the first training course from 13.-21.11.2014 in Istanbul about 15 multipliers and youth workers from Istanbul region and Münster participated in the 8-days media training. They learned how to use creative multimedia tools to voice their opinions on a variety of social and cultural issues.
The participants use digital media (video, radio, internet) for creating media reports, presenting issues like civil society engagement, intercultural dialogue, youth education, environmental protection, employability and aspects of candidate membership of the EU.
The second 8-days course for 10 trainer candidates took place from 7.-14.02.2015 at the Bürgerhaus Bennohaus in Münster (DE).
In 2015 YouthArt (TR) and the German project partners will create an online multimedia platform and establish a Community Media Center in Istanbul.
At the end of the project there will be a multiplier-pool/network with 10 qualified trainers and about 120 citizen journalists. All participants will complete social and community media practise workshops learning crossmedia and video journalism regarding the European ethical and journalistic standards of independent media.
Benedikt Althoff
